Packaging in the Pharmaceutical industry represents a multiple billion-dollar global market that is constantly evolving, and is ever growing, currently at a CAGR of 6%, year-on-year and, whilst packaging is utilised across multiple manufacturing sectors worldwide, demand for packaging in the pharmaceutical and medicinal industry is always going to be in high demand.
Recent events, such as COVID-19 scrutinised the integrity of the pharma supply chain, and forced manufacturers to consider how they incorporated traceability into their process chains; health and safety, waste management, costly recalls etc. and automation is now playing a huge part in the Pharmaceutical industry. An increasing awareness of technological innovations are driving growth across the industry, and as solutions and automation technology gains momentum, future growth is expected to reach over £83 billion by 2024.
Traceability is a vital consideration in fast-paced packaging environments, such as Food & Beverage and Pharmaceutical. Efficiencies in out-put and less costly product recalls are key. Having the appropriate solutions in place, can ensure that sub-standard and/or unsafe products can be quickly located and removed from sale, to protect customer safety.
SyringePack300 has been developed by KUKA Ireland system partners, ControlSoft, to manage the fast and efficient packaging and marking of boxes of syringes, intended for use in the global veterinary sector. High volumes, tricky product dynamics and packing challenges meant that supply versus demand could not be sufficiently maintained by manual means. Syringe handling is extremely difficult and a challenge to achieve even using robot process automation, so digitisation played a large part in the delivery of SyringePack300, which ControlSoft have successfully achieved, much to the satisfaction of their client.
So how can the solution satisfy security threats in the Pharmaceutical industry and how is robotics and automation mitigating the risks that can exist? The fully autonomous system manages all aspects that relate to the safe and efficient output of boxed and labelled syringes. For ease, we’ve broken the process down into five easy-to-follow steps.
- Coding and Marking – SyringePack300 currently prints the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), batch number (LOT), expiry date (EXP) and date of manufacture on each box. Integrated vision inspection systems also verify that the correct codes have been printed/applied to the outer boxes prior to their onward journey. Incorrect or poor quality coded are detected and removed via a rejection lane for rework.
The 2D printed code is read and compared with the pre-printed human readable GTIN and if there is a mismatch then the box is rejected automatically. Similarly – the machine prints a batch number and dates of manufacture and expiry in 2D and clear text – the vision system verification will check both the 2D and human readable data and compares all this with the batch configuration setup and if there is any discrepancy or illegibility then the system rejects the box.
- Vision Systems & product integrity – SyringePack300 inspects each individual syringe and scrutinises the label, plunger and tip quality. Vision is used to verify that the products are correctly aligned when placed in the outer box, the specific product codes are correctly printed and label count verification also takes place.
- Track & Trace – SyringePack300 is Track & Trace The control system software design incorporates vision and inline printing further supporting a fully traceable product at entry to market.
- Cyber Security – SyringePack300 utilises Rockwell’s Stratix High Performance Managed Switches. Stratix Managed Switches use the Cisco iOS operating system which helps protect against modern cyberattacks.
- Serialisation – SyringePack300 is Serialisation The control system software design incorporates vision and inline printing further supporting a fully traceable product at entry to market.
When we talk about threats there are several that can potentially impact the Pharmaceutical industry, including counterfeit medicines, that can be produced in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. The production of counterfeit medicines/drugs also means that they are not inspected by regulatory authorities making it impossible to know what ingredients these counterfeit medicines contain. Pharmaceutical supply chains must observe Good Distribution Practice, but such regulations constantly change. Businesses and their practices, therefore compliance, need to be able to change, quickly and efficiently.
Technological advancements, such as robotics and automated processes enable the pharmaceutical industry to serve more people than ever, though as the sector strives to deliver disease eradicating medicines, the security needs of the industry are becoming more challenging.
The pharmaceutical industry, and the businesses that operate within it, are responsible for the high-traffic flow of goods. Mitigating risk by implementing the screening and monitoring of products, is key. As a USP to potential customers, having the right systems, processes and technologies in place to mitigate risk is a real differentiator.
The system agility of SyringePack300, means it can handle a high throughput of boxes and contents and has been specifically built for this purpose. It’s incorporation of several technologies allow the management of multiple risk profiles. Once product leaves a production facility, controlling what happens to them is out of a manufacturers control. Applications, such as those delivered by SyringePack300 however, provide a holistic and integrated security approach.
To find out more about SyringePack300 please contact ControlSoft on +353 42 932 6060 or visit https://www.controlsoft.ie/ SyringePack300 can be viewed in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kWs_VCGpUI
